Basic plan and assessment of an information system designed to aid patient transfer

One of the important assignments in the planning of community medical care is to find an effective way of implementing the sharing of facilities together with their coordination. In particular, the establishment of a smooth and effective system co-ordinating facilities and functions of medical organizations, comprising clinics and hospitals of various levels, and the installation of an information system, designed to provide positive assistance in information control as well as in its operation, should be undertaken urgently. In this paper, we discuss the patient-transfer system, which is one of the facility-co-ordination-system for medical organizations, from the point of view of total community medical care. Specifically we describe the purpose, features and total structure of the patient-transfer system, and discuss the basic plan for an information system designed to aid patient transfer, from information control together with an advance assessment from the system-engineering point of view. This research has been promoted by the Aichi Medical Association committee for medical care system. The proposed system is planned to be operational in the near future.